Mary Jo White, the woman President Obama plans to nominate on Thursday to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, has earned her share of superlatives over a long, storied career.

Heres what you need to know about White, who could become the nations next top financial cop:
She would be the first prosecutor to head the SEC.
She knows the finance industry wellmaybe too well for some.
White played a key role prosecuting Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida militants in the 1990s.
White investigated President Clintons last-minute pardons.

White, who spent nearly a decade as U.S. Attorney in New York City, would be the first former prosecutor to lead the SEC. She oversaw successful prosecutions in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and against mafia boss John Gotti, as well as numerous white-collar criminals. The White House highlighted that background in an apparent signal to would-be wrongdoers in the financial sector.

#7
she may have the creds for the job, but after seeing her mug shot, my first impression was that she was a relative of Janet Reno, the Second Fugliest Female to ever be appointed to an executive post in the federal gov't.

President Obama has nominated my former boss, Mary Jo White, to be the next chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He could not have made a better choice.

I worked for Mary Jo for nearly a decade when she was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for nine years, from 1993-2002. Its not enough to say shes one of the best lawyers in the country; shes also one of the best people Ive been fortunate to know. She is whip smart and tough. She is also a model of integrity and rectitude. She will do what the SEC ought to do: aggressive enforcement against fraudulent actors. But she also has a world of experience representing businesses, and thus a mature appreciation of the difference between necessary regulation and paralyzing overreach.

The president has made many terrible appointments. To say that this one is a superb appointment is not to grade him on a curve. Mary Jo White will be terrific in what is a very important job.

#2
Seeing more and more of this from all aspects of State government and agencies. More and more are telling the federal to go fuck themselves and they are flat out ignoring Washington.

Dangerous for the continuation of federal power over the next 4 years and the government knows it. Hence the gun grab and other rules to try to bring the states to heel.

The federal government will have to make a hard choice in the next couple years. Really push hard using everything as possible to make the states follow federal rules and risk them revolting, or letting a dangerous precedent be set.

Sen. John Kerry, President Obama's nominee for secretary of state, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that if he is confirmed, he will "look forward to continuing to work particularly closely" with members of the panel, which he chaired for the last four years.

Kerry, a longtime senator from Massachusetts, said his approach is informed by his 28-plus years on the committee and in the Senate.

"I'm already excited by the many ways in which we can work together and in which we must work together to advance America's security interests in a complicated and even dangerous world," he said.

Kerry has to be confirmed by the full Senate. Before he spoke, outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, praised Kerry and called for his confirmation.

#2
not only will he be confirmed, it is unlikely he will get any sharp questions about his three suck up visits to basher al assad nor any sharp questions about his suck up letters to the Sandanistas nor his suck up comments about Hu's supposed improvements of human rights in china nor...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office confirmed that she will be introducing in the Senate Thursday a new version of the so-called assault weapon ban. A spokesman said the full text will be released at a press conference on Thursday. They do seem to be banging the drum loudly these days. Each day brings us a new gun control idea or proposal. Why, it's almost as if it's all coordinated or something...
The California Democrat intends to expand on the ban that expired in 2004, by including handguns and shotguns, in addition to rifles. She would decrease from two to one the number of cosmetic features on a gun to have it be considered an "assault weapon." This means that if a gun has just one item like a pistol grip or bayonet lug, then it is illegal. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the same ban in New York last week.

Furthermore, instead of grandfathering in current firearms, she would create a national gun registry for the government to track lawful gun owners.Big brother is watching you and knows who to go after first.
Magazines would again be limited to 10 rounds.

The Clinton-era bill was not renewed by Congress after the Federal Bureau of Investigation and law enforcement agencies reported that it was ineffective in reducing crime. And this ban won't be either. But it isn't about safety, it is about control.

I was reading our daily blat yesterday. Our police have decided to change out the force firearms from Glock 40s to Sig 45s. The Sigs hold 8 rounds in the magazines whereas the Glocks hold 15 rounds. They will now be carrying five magazines whereas they had been carrying three mags previously. In trials, officers cited accuracy as a Sig feature they liked.

#5
bman, some outfit called Elmer Arms South LLC has the contract. Their website is: Link. They supply firearms to police. I don't know what they will do with them. I know some TN state agencies auction off their old firearms to the public.

[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Charles Evans Hughes ... on Wednesday warned of rising militancy in the wake of the Arab Spring, in an emotional and at times heated testimony into the deadly Benghazi attack.

"Benghazi didn't happen in a vacuum," Clinton said at the start of a Senate hearing into the September 11 assault on a U.S. mission in eastern Libya.

"The Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region," she told the Foreign Relations committee called to review the lessons learned from the attack, in which U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

The top U.S. diplomat choked back a sob as she described having to call the families with the news that Stevens, and information manager Sean Smith, had been killed, and then watching them come home in flag-draped coffins.

Appearing at her last congressional hearings before she steps down later this month, Clinton reiterated that she took full responsibility for security deficiencies at the mission.

But showing no signs of her long period of ill-health, the top U.S. diplomat angrily defended the U.S. administration of President Barack ObamaIn case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed... and ambassador Susan Rice against charges they had sought to cover-up the true events surrounding the attack.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Clinton insisted, stressing that in the days afterwards the administration did not have "a full picture yet."

"With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night and decided to go kill some Americans?" she said.

"What difference does it make?" she demanded, thumping her fist on the table as Senator Ron Johnson repeatedly asked her why the administration had falsely initially blamed the attack on protests outside the mission.

"It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator."

It makes no difference what happened as you figure out what happened so that you can prevent it from happening again. My goodness, neither she nor anyone else in Washington parses what she says.

Clinton insisted there was no greater priority than protecting the State Department's 70,000 staff in 275 posts around the world, saying she had already moved to implement the recommendations of an internal review to boost security.

When our embassy was burning and people were dying, hillary, this administration did NOT go after terrorists.

They went after the First Amendment.

Now, let me make THIS clear: the First Amendment is what allows the people and the representatives of their government to "talk about this". No matter how unpleasant, unpopular, unseeming, or theratening to your political careers, it assures the people that they can "talk about this",

By going after the First Amendment, this Administration, and thus YOU by extention, no longer want to settle differences between yourselves and the people you represent by talking about it.

Thus, when (not if) it blows up in your face, there will be no more falling back on "LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS!" to avoid the deathly consequences of this intentional violation of a contractual document YOU decided to violate. That's GONE. No more hiding behind a shield you used once to protect YOUR protests, but which YOU scrapped yourselves to deny US protection for OUR protests. That's GONE.

#4
Yesterday was a naseating theatrical performance which I will entitle "Lies, and Damn Lies".

I can postulate, but truthfully, I have absolutely no idea of what actually took place at Benghazi. I do know however, where that knowledge lies and who will eventually release it. It will be released when one of the those mystery people [26 I believe it was] extracted by the COS in Tripoli and eventually flown to Landstuhl rips up his or her non-disclosure statement goes rogue with a story or writes a book.

Quote of the day:

"The Republicans were a bunch of weenies"
LTC(Ret) Ralph Peters
The O'Reilly Factor, 23 Jan 2013

#8
A performance tantrum suitable for Oprah not the Senate--Crying and slamming her fists but never answering any questions. Rand Paul seemed to have the proper demeanor for the affair--his recommendation: "Fire her."

#13
Dangers of militancy? Does she even remember Sept 11 or anything that happened since. How bizzare that nobody in this administration considered the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq when they jumped into Libya with a smile and a 'we know better'. Fools and dolts the lot.

#16
John McCain: Lets hear from the survivors of the Benghazi attackRepublican Ariz. Sen. John McCain wants to hear directly from the survivors of the Benghazi terrorist attack, to shed light on questions he says were left unanswered by Secretary of State Hillary Clintons testimony to the Senate foreign relations committee Wednesday morning.

McCain was asked by Breitbart News whether he thought the survivors should be asked to provide their accounts of what exactly happened before, during and after the Sept. 11, 2012 attack.

They should certainly [do so]. If not come up to Capitol Hill, at least be identified and take their statements as to what they saw, he said.

When asked if he was satisfied with Clintons answers, McCain responded, Of course not. If you watched the hearings, you saw me list about 10 unanswered questions.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.